A lot of the fandom seems to be freaking out about this so let’s talk about it!
This was actually one of my favourite scenes from the episode. Not because of any kind of impending drama but because this conversation has honestly been a long time coming.
After episode 7, there was no relationship talk. Victor and Yuuri have yet to sit down and tell each other straight up what they want out of their relationship (both personally and professionally). Flash back to episode 4 where Victor was asking what he should be to Yuuri. Now they actually are boyfriends (well, even more than that, fiancés) but same as we’ve never heard them state it, I don’t think they’ve really made it explicitly clear to each other either.
I feel that so far they’ve just been letting things evolve as they go. The Cup of China was actually only a bit over a month ago in-series. Their intimate relationship is still very new and it’s been moving really fast. They’re definitely physically intimate (as you can see by the pushed-together beds) but they haven’t quite connected the same way on the emotional level. They definitely love each other and want to stay with each other, I don’t doubt that for a moment, but they haven’t sat down and said “I want to spend my life with you” to each other. They haven’t told each other what their plans are for their professional relationship either.
We know that Victor has been doing a lot of thinking, and it was very obvious in this episode that he is grieving his career, but it’s also obvious that he doesn’t plan to go back to skating competitively.
Yuuri however, being the anxious person that he is, is reading Victor’s grieving all wrong. Yuuri is thinking that not only is their professional relationship (which he could end simply by retiring) but also their personal relationship is holding Victor back from what he “wants” – to go back to being a competitive skater. And thus we get the line that we did here. This is Yuuri’s attempt to “free” Victor to allow him to chase what Yuuri thinks he actually wants, which turns out could not be any further from the truth.
They aren’t going to break up. I can tell you that right now and with absolute certainty. Rather than this being something that is going to create drama, it is actually going to work to solve it. Yuuri needs to hear from Victor that Victor has no intention of leaving and that he wants to stay with Yuuri more than he wants to continue his skating career. Also very important is that Victor needs to say it out loud. Victor is a thinker, he rarely makes big decisions on a whim. He’s been processing what he wants to do with his life for a year now and he has definitely come to his decision (as was evident in episode 10).
Victor has chosen Yuuri over his skating career and this line from episode 11 is just the gateway to the discussion that will firmly cement their personal relationship in place. And the final bow-tie on the gift that is their relationship will be the duet skate at the end of the episode.
Guys, ep 11 was rough, but it makes a LOT of sense. Yuuri has anxiety and not just any kind, but self-worth related anxiety. Furthermore he thinks Victor has only fallen in love with him because of their skating routine – he doesn’t remember the banquet dance-off. Specifically, he thinks Victor has fallen in love with a spark that he sees in Yuuri’s skating. He thinks Victor’s love is conditional.
Which is probably why he protested the engagement confusion last episode. He thinks this is temporary. He thinks Victor is just infatuated. Maybe he started to believe in something better for a second, in the airport, but anxiety is bound to take hold and make him question everything. And we saw that, this episode, IMO.
When Yuuri sees Victor watch other skaters perform amazing feats, he instantly enters that anxious state of “I’m not good enough to keep this” And since he, himself, didn’t perform his best, he thinks it’s going to be all downhill from here. Victor will, in his anxious mind, fall quickly out of love with him once there’s nothing “special” about him. He may even start becoming infatuated with another young skater.
So what do people with anxiety and self-worth issues do? SELF SABOTAGE. Woo! There’s less anxiety if you’re the one who controls how things fall apart. It’d be more stressful for Yuuri to stay in a relationship that he thinks is doomed. It would mean that every second of every day, he’s just waiting and watching for Victor to drift away. So he’d rather rip off the bandaid now, grieve all at once, and then move on. Because even if Victor is upset now, Yuuri believes that too will pass and he’ll be “free” of his delusion that he really loved Yuuri.
So yeah, we’re all just screaming at our TVs, but this is what people with anxiety do. All the time. It’s totally IC. And it’s the one obstacle that Victuuri has, really – dealing with Yuuri’s anxiety. Because love, however true, doesn’t make mental illness go away. Nor does winning gold, if he manages that in the free skate. These two, if they are to last, need to face the full reality of Yuuri’s anxiety. It wouldn’t be a happy ending if they didn’t solve this first.
Kudos to Kubo-sensei for the writing so far, and here’s hoping that next episode brings everything together in a way that respects the universe she’s created so far, and doesn’t just shove everyone together in a fake-happy ending.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this, so here you go, my thoughts on the Victor-Yurio scene from episode 10. I feel like I don’t really have enough information to make a clear-cut statement about it which is why I hesitated to, but you guys really insisted so….
My theory is : this is about Yurio’s Agape.
So, a few things we have established : 1) Victor genuinely means well for Yurio and his growth as a skater 2) Yurio admired or hero-worshipped Victor back in the day 3) Yurio was present at the banquet and had a perfectly good idea what happened 4) Yurio likes yelling at both of them in a tsundere way a lot, and acts particularly resentful to Victor acting like he’s still at Russia’s top 5) Yurio’s Important Person is his grandpa, and he’s skating partly to support his family (this is in his character bio)
I feel like for the most part, despite how we’ve been introduced to him as a self-centered character, Yurio’s primary motivations are more about serving other people. Serving his country. Serving his family and friends. He skates for his family and for Russia, and the thing that means the most to him is being called a soldier—a profession where you lay down your life for your country. It’s not all of him, but Yurio is mostly about love for others, unconditional, giving.
(Yuuri’s motivations were a lot more self-centered, really.)
Yurio’s 15. Victor’s been skating for 20 years, and his gold medal streak (if not his 100% win streak) started when he was 15, so 12 years ago. In his home country, he’s known as the Hero of Russia. So Yurio would’ve spent most of his young life growing up with these tales of the legendary Victor Nikiforov, the great hero who brought glory to his country, the emperor who brought the crown to their homeland. To be Victor is to have a honor that Yurio dreams of, in serving everyone. To shoulder a responsibility he wants to shoulder. This invincible, shining hero of myth is what comes to mind with the words ‘Victor Nikiforov’, and that is everything Yurio wants to be.
And then Victor threw it all away for love.
Victor himself says so. He’s engaged. His boyfriend is going to win the gold—screw Russia’s gold, he wants it to go to his boyfriend—and then they’re going to get married. And then here he is, in the morning, standing there looking at his engagement ring like a lovestruck idiot.
What could be more selfish, to Yurio?
Where is that hero now? And why is this man still acting like he has the right to that hero’s name?
So there’s the resentment of that, and there’s another thing : I feel that Yurio has some mild abandonment issues. We know that his mom was barely around, if at all, during his childhood. We know that he gets very insecure when his grandpa isn’t there (which probably is part of why he grew friendly with Yuuri). And now he feels that he’s been abandoned by this man he admires, too, for completely selfish reasons. Him and his country both.
So being Yurio, he lashes out.
Victor’s actually been having pretty interesting reactions to Yurio’s lash-outs on this subject for a while now. Most of the time, he just smiles this mysterious half-smile and deflect the subject or let it go. Some other times, when Yurio feels frustrated, he goads Yurio on. This is one of those times, apparently.
I feel like Victor’s response to Yurio is threefold : one, this time, he’s also asserting himself. He’s dedicated himself to being Russia’s hero for 20 years. He’s tired. It sucked all the life out of him, life that he only found again with Yuuri. He’s done. And as far as he’s concerned, this is not up for discussion, especially not from a young skater who’s never actually done it and thus never realized what that thing does to you. Second, he’s still coming to terms with his future and what he’s giving up for it—not that he regrets it, but it’s been his life for 20 years and now he’s thinking about how it’s not his life anymore and what that ring means for him from now on—-even if he goes back to skating, it won’t be the same anymore. And Yurio barged in and brought that issue face to face with him. The fact that he has to leave, and others will take his place. So he faces it.
And lastly, and most importantly….he knows that Yurio’s anger can’t touch him, so this time he’s willing to play the recipient of it once again, let Yurio lash out and use said anger to see past him grow further, because he genuinely does want Yurio to grow as a skater in his own right. And if that means Yurio needs to finally kill his own hero for real? So be it. He’ll lend a hand. Act like that invincible hero, let Yurio kill ‘him’ once and for all.
(This is similar to him acting like asshole at the end of episode 2, I think.)
So, Victor Nikiforov the hero is dead.
Here stands Victor Nikiforov the person, a man who hears the cry of seagulls on the shore and think of home in a Japanese seaside town, engagement ring glittering on his finger.
Yurio resents Victor Nikiforov the hero so very much his blood could burn….but that hero is dead. What remains is Victor Nikiforov the person….and he actually rather likes Victor Nikiforov the person. He’s known this man for a while, even if it was only glimpses of him, seen him being outrageous and stupid and silly, and ever since meeting Yuuri Katsuki, seen him being happier than he had any right to be—–and despite everything, and despite not wanting to admit it—-he cares, and he wants Victor Nikiforov the person to continue being happy. Because his love is Agape—-unconditional and selfless towards his fellow man, in the name of a merciful god.
Hurry up and go away already, he says.
If this is your decision, stick to it, the words said, between the lines.
Understanding everything, Victor Nikiforov the hero raises his sword and lets the Russian soldier come and kill him once and for all.
The seagulls’ cry reminds me of the sea in Hasetsu, he says.
I wish you happiness in the path you chose, said the words.
Understanding everything, Victor Nikiforov the person smiles, face flushed in the morning sunlight, and says yes, it does.
Or at least, this is my interpretation.
tl;dr – that conversation was three conversations at once : between Russia’s soldier and its traitorous hero, between an abandoned child and its caretaker figure, and between Yurio the person and Victor the person. It is about Yurio’s love for others and Victor’s love for the self. It is about Yurio’s Agape and Victor’s Eros (for Yuuri). It’s about Yurio’s abandonment and Victor’s compassion. It is, in the end, about how growing up, letting go and reaching understanding comes about in different ways.
So, I should be doing work, but I wanted to do some quick Yuri on Ice meta because reasons.
I know there’s a lot of ideas that Victor has been spending a year wondering why Yuri’s so cold to him after being so friendly at the gala, but I honestly think it would have taken him max 1-2 days of knowing Yuri to know that drunk!Yuri isn’t nearly the same person as the staid, sober Yuri. Moreover, I think that what’s really telling is the end of ep 2 when Victor goes looking for Yuri.
He checks at Minako’s bar, and per her he doesn’t really hang out there. Moreover, she provides a new view of Yuri – not brilliant, but has enough time to become competent.
So he goes to the ice rink.
Here he meets two people who consider himself Yuri’s friends now, but they weren’t his peers, and when he was growing up they were too old to be real friends to him. They provide a new view of Yuri – competitive (he hates to lose), lonely (practices all the time at the expense of friendships) and even now struggling at connecting to people.
I think pretty early on, Victor realized that the fun loving party animal who pole danced at the gala wasn’t the real Yuri. What’s interesting to me is that I think it’s arguable Victor came to get more of the Yuri he lusted after, but fell in love with the quieter Yuri who was just as lonely as Victor was.
I think he let go of drunk!Yuri pretty early on because we all say things when we’re drunk (We should start a band! Let’s go to Europe! Let’s get a tattoo!) that either we don’t really want or that don’t fit with real life.
It’s just sweet that while he was initially looking for the party guy, the one who cracked Victor’s ice prince veneer, he found someone who fit him so much better and decided to stick around.
SOMETHING I really love about Yuri on Ice is that it’s not a story about getting “good” enough to succeed. Stories about sports or competitions are always about the protag overcoming some skill-related setback to succeed. Which is, y’know, always fun to watch!!
But here’s Yuri, a guy who’s already an accomplished and celebrated figure skater. He already has fans, is already famous, already inspires young skaters. He already has the skills necessary to be the best.
The only thing he has to overcome is his own self-doubt.
It’s a very real barrier for an artist/performer/athlete to face, and it’s written with the utmost care. He doesn’t have a singular “oh, I believe in myself now” moment. He goes back and forth.
He lets Yurio yell at him when he’s crying in the bathroom, and later he smiles and thinks to himself, “this kid is seriously underestimating me haha.”
He wins one round of a competition and then has a massive panic attack about the one immediately following. He believes in himself, and then he worries, and then he gets fired up, and then he doubts. But every time he falls back, he gets a little closer to really truly being confident. And that’s what it’s really like for artists and athletes and really anybody with a dream.
It’s not a flat, straight road to self-confidence. You fall and stop and have to force yourself to keep moving.
And I think that’s done beautifully in this show!!
there are SO MANY ppl predicting that yuuri’s not gonna win gold and honestly…. why are ppl so universally set on this? like i get that he doesn’t have to win it to have a happy redeeming ending but why CAN’T he win gold? why CAN’T he land the god of figure skating as a husband, redeem himself with a gold medal at the major international championship that’s been his goal for an entire year or more, end the year with triumphs and successes untold and just once in his life have it all? if this were any other sports anime i might get it but *mr darcy voice* it’s taught me to hope as i’ve scarcely hoped before
it’s been pretty hammered into us that despite his successes yuuri has never once had the stars align perfectly for him so honestly like why can’t we just have an anime where the gay anxiety-ridden socially awkward unreliable narrator protagonist has the perfect fairy-tale ending? y’all were so certain he was gonna get married but have no faith in the fact that he has the ability/deserves to win. this is like the one series where the dream of wish fulfillment could actually happen and not feel like everything was just handed to him without any effort and you’re out here so certain he’s gonna lose like let him live i just wanna believe in christmas miracles
I am 100% convinced Yuuri will win gold. The progression of his story doesn’t make sense without a win, especially after his disappointing performance in Moscow (which I was also 100% convinced would happen). To have him get anything less is a stagnant storyline. It doesn’t go anywhere.
That boy is bringing home gold … and with the way this anime is escalating, maybe also a husband.
Just like everyone else, I loved the revelation of Victor being 157% smitten with Drunk!Yuuri, and that being a huge reason for him to pack up and leave for Japan. But we do both Yuuri and Victor a great disservice in thinking that is the main reason why Victor decided to coach him.
If we compare the skaters we’ve seen getting gold medals so far, the one thing they have in common, besides being technically great, of course, is that they all know how to present themselves to the world. Victor is ALWAYS smiling and charming with his fans and fellow skaters; Phichit is the King of Social Media, one flawless selfie after another; JJ, no matter whether you like him or not, is a rockstar.
And this is important for ice skating because skaters are judged based on the technical elements and the program components, which include performance and interpretation. Which makes you wonder no more why Otabek or Seung Gil didn’t score gold.
So YOI is just full of ingenious, subtle and entirely graceful dialogue. No scene is wasted and every conversation, however brief can explain so much with just a few lines. I’d like to take a moment to talk about one of the last scenes in episode 10 when Yurio and Victor are on the beach. In all honesty, I thought about this scene a lot and it took me a little while to really, truly understand what was going on here.
I love how this episode finally showed us how much of an unreliable narrator Yuri has been like… The first ep we saw showed him last year chickening out in front of Victor and running away, thinking he’d spoiled his chance to meet his idol. Then this episode comes out and it’s like…. boy no you got drunk, had a dance off that included mostly-nude pole dancing, then begged Victor to coach you as he flat out fell for you like Russian Icarus getting too close to the light in your eyes
I absolutely love this though because, Yuuri has been an unreliable narrator right from the beginning.
He’s always described himself as a mediocre third-rate skater… but he qualified for the Grand Prix Final last year, so he had to have medaled a LOT to pull that off. He’s intimidated by Minami who beat him the previous year because Minami is obviously a superior skater… but Minami looks up to Yuuri as an inspiration for skating. He describes himself as a disappoint and a failure, but background shots of his family’s inn show that he has a crap ton of trophies, and his entire home town thinks he’s a hero.
And now, at long last, the show has given us the biggest twist yet. Yuuri has convinced the entire audience that Victor is the desirable one, Victor is the catch, Victor is the unattainable idol to be pursued, but he’s not.
This whole time, Victor’s been the admirer, the one doing the chasing. And neither Yuuri nor the audience had realized that until now.
I believe this was much more than Yurio acting like a little shit in front of Victor.
And what caught my attention were the similarities between this scene and Yuuri’s and Yurio’s scene in episode 9. But why’s this? Well hear me on this one.
Yurio knows, he knows Victor’s still having trouble to decide what to do next. Everything that’ll happened after the Grand Prix, Victor seems confident and prepared, but leaving the world of skating, which has been part of him for more than 20 years, is not something he can do over the course of a day.
Victor’s struggling, and now that ring opens a door for a new life… something which was not there before. Victor Nikiforov has been standing alone for so many years, and now.. the man just got proposed the night before, of course he’s got a lot of thinking to do. He’s trying to figure things out, and I want to believe Yurio understands that.
Just like in episode 9, these two (Victor and Yuuri), tend to ovethink things when they get worried.
Victor standing alone, he might have been contemplating all the future possibilities which await him.
And look at the similarities, they both get anxious all by themselves, and that’s when this kid comes and tries to put some sense in both. In a way he gives them this little push of courage.
All this resembles what happened with Yuuri back in Russia. Remember how Yurio tried to cheer him up?
Yeah… in his own way, but he did it.
And it’s not evident, he won’t say it directly, “cheer up”, or “it’ll be alright”, but he wants for Victor to leave without regrets, and for Yurio, what better way to say it, than this:
It’s like him saying: “The man I once looked up to, is dead now.“
For Yurio, Victor is no longer the man he used to be, he is no longer someone who’ll give everything for skating, he has found new things which are precious to him now.
And Yurio knows, that’s why… just like with Yuuri, he is trying for Victor to understand something.
“You know, you may be Victor Nikiforov, but this world will survive without you, you don’t need to worry anymore.” (more or less).
And the things is… we’ve seen this along the whole series, how people just expect for Victor to return at the end of this skating season, people like Chris, the public, the media. And Yurio is trying, in a way, to make him want to leave for good, because he knows that’s what Victor really wants. He’s not telling him that directly, but just like he did with Yuuri, for him “Just go away already, geezer.”, is the same as telling him he doesn’t have to carry the weight of staying if that’s no longer something he wants for his life.
And we know, for Yurio as a skater, there will never be a reason valid enough to justify Victor leaving, but it’s no a decision for him to make. He’s telling Victor: “Just go, your time has come to and end.” And he… more than anyone wants to believe that.
The influence this man has had in Yurio’s life, is something he knows he will not find in other skater, not in the same way at least. But he is growing, he knows he’ll get to meet new people like Otabek, he’ll get to learn from them and keep going. And he also knows it’s time for Victor to go, he knows it’s time for him to let go of that symbol (even if it hurts he’ll never admit it) and understand Victor just wants to leave his life the best way he can, and now that he has found a person who he wants to share it with, Yurio has no longer doubts about how the image of that skater he once knew, is no longer present.
And… he’ll keep acting like a rebel child, of course.
But then you get to see a shift in his attitude, and that’s what gave it away.
Why would Yurio mention Hasetsu all of a sudden? Well the only thing that comes to mind, is that he knows Victor’s fallen in love with that home, with Yuuri, with the time he’s spend there, that’s the life he sees for himself in the future.
Yurio knows where Victor’s heart stands now, and he’s come to terms with it in his own way.
i never add on to any meta posts, but i loved this one a lot and i just wanted to point out the little scene in episode 8 where victor was being interviewed and was asked if he would like to compete with yuuri as fellow skaters and victor just smiled, not answering the question. and yurio noticed. and then victor diverted their attention to yurio ofc lol. (i digress, but yurio has noticed a lot of things regarding victor and yuuri, like how victor was entranced by yuuri’s eros performance in ep 3, or how yuuri could’ve performed better with victor by his side in ep 9 – heck even mila thought so too lol). yurio has been spending a few years being victor’s rink mate, and i’d like to believe that he cares about victor more than he lets on, since he knows about things like victor’s uncertainty in continuing on for the next season as observed from his conversation with yuuri back in episode 2.
my comments are unnecessary but this scene from episode 10 is so amazing in the sense that it contains so many layers i just couldn’t help myself lol
Nothing but My Aching Soul 